The Price Of Freedom
The Spectral Knights are forced into slavery at the hands of the Darkling Lords and the citizens of Khemir! Synopsis While returning from an excursion in the Dagger Assault, Reekon and Mortdred are pulled over by a young man very excited to see that they have working technology. Belizar pleads that the Lords help his people: the free citizens of Khemir, which, Reekon notes, was a bastion of high technology in the Age of Science. Without any technology, the city is being overrun by the jungle. Over Mortdred's objections that they should report to Darkstorm, Reekon has the man guide them to Khemir. Unknown to the Darkling Lords, this was observed by Arzon, in his Eagle form. He returns to the nearby Capture Chariot, where Feryl is lounging about and the pair decide to follow. In the ruins of Khemir, the citizens are gathered to witness Orzan attempt to perform magic from an old book. Infuriated at having to lower himself to this, Orzan throws aside the book. He is chastised by elder statesman Rone, who points out that they must work out how to repair the city's robot slaves. A young woman, Marna, suggests that they could just learn to do the work themselves. She is rebuked by Rone - this is the age of magic, not manual labour. The meeting is interrupted by the appearance of the Dagger Assault, which wows the crowd. Belizar introduces Reekon and Mortdred as masters of magic and tells his people that Mortdred - on Darkstorm's behalf - has promised to provide the city with slaves, if they pledge loyalty. This goes down well with the Khemirites, so Mortdred leaves in the Dagger Dart, warning Reekon not to get any ideas about making a play for personal power. The Dagger Dart passes Arzon and Feryl, who decide to hide the Capture Chariot out of sight. They continue on foot to the "lost city" of Khemir. Their approach is spotted by Reekon, hiding in some long grass in his Lizard form. He changes out of it to tell a group of armed Khemirites that the encroaching Spectral Knights would condemn them to a life of hard labour. The group turns into a mob and chases the Knights out of town. The pair retrieve the Capture Chariot and make their escape, but are chased down by the returning Dagger Dart and the Sky Claw. Arzon manages to take down Virulina in the Dagger Dart, but Feryl gets overexcited and drives the Chariot into a boulder. Arzon changes into his totem and swoops in to rescue Feryl, but the Sky Claw's vulture is summoned, changes into a dragon, and knocks them out of the sky. Shortly, Darkstorm has met with the Khemirites and reiterates Mortdred's promise of slaves in exchange for fealty. The crowd is keen, except for Marna, who looks on with disquiet. Later, Cryotek is keeping guard of the entrance to New Valarak when he is approached by a group of people claiming to be refugees from Khemir. He grants them access to the city. As the Spectral Knights provide aid to the group, Ectar is concerned that this is foolish, given how little is known about them. His heartlessness is shamed by Galadria, who points out that they can easily provide the shelter and food that New Valarak offers. Cryotek tells an unconcerned Leoric that Arzon and Feryl are missing, having not returned from their patrol. The pair are struggling to reach New Valarak, with the Capture Chariot damaged and Arzon grounded with an injured arm. As night settles, the Khemirite refugees spring a surprise attack on Cryotek and open the city gates for the waiting Darkling Lords. Sneaking through the rest of the castle, the Khemirites steal the sleeping Spectral Knights' Power Staffs and throw them down to the Darkling Lords now parked up in the courtyard, but in doing so wake Galadria. She rushes to Leoric's chamber to warn him, but by the time she, Leoric, Ectar and Witterquick have got their armour on, the Darkling Lords are ready to attack! The Sky Claw strafes Leoric, but he jumps onboard. Using his whip, he throws Darkstorm into the moat and falls onto Lexor, saving Witterquick in the process. They notice their Power Staffs by the Dagger Assault, so change to their totems to retrieve them. Witterquick is delayed by Cindarr, but Leoric reaches his Wisdom staff. He summons the Owl of Wisdom, who tells him that "comfort and wealth matter little if one is not free" and also to look out behind him, but it's too late. Darkstorm knocks out Leoric and forces the rest of the Spectral Knights into surrendering. Leoric is thrown into the Dagger Assault and stripped of his totem. The Darkling Lords take the totems from the rest of the Knights and plan to hold a tournament to divide up the stolen Staffs. Belizar announces that he also wants to fight for a Staff, but is dismissed scornfully by Darkstorm. The Khemirites settle for their new home and slaves, with the Knights forced into servitude on threat of violence to the other citizens of New Valarak if they step out of line. Life as a slave doesn't go that well for the Spectral Knights. Galadria can't sew as well as Marna expects, forcing Cryotek to step in and do the work for her. The pair explain that expecting human beings to do the work of robot slaves is foolish, but Marna has never known a life without them. Witterquick is too clumsy as a waiter for Orzan, while Leoric and Ectar chafe at Belizar lording his position over them. While Ectar and Belizar fight, Leoric spots the Capture Chariot returning. He shouts a warning out the window, allowing Arzon to fly to freedom, but Feryl is brought down by Cravex. Feryl finds himself thrown in a tower cell with Leoric, where Darkstorm warns that if Arzon doesn't give himself up, all the Knights will be sent to the vanadium mines, a lethal job that used to be fulfilled by robots. Arzon is listening to this outside in his Eagle form and despite Marna musing that no one could be expected to give himself up into slavery willing, he enters the cell and surrenders. As the tournament begins, Marna realises the meaning of the Owl of Wisdom's staff and frees Leoric, Feryl and Arzon. In the courtyard, Virulina and Lexor face off for Arzon's Knowledge staff. The brave Lexor quickly changes into his Armadillo form and knocks Virulina down, but she promptly grabs him by the tail and spins him into submission. Belizar watches on bitterly before noticing the Spectral Knights escaping. He gloats that when he sounds the alarm, they'll all be sent to the vanadium mines and Darkstorm will have to make him a knight. Belizar attempts to warn Darkstorm, but Marna stops him. She convinces him that the Spectral Knights are worthy of freedom, even if it means the Khemirites know less comfort. Outside, Mortdred asks Darkstorm if he can compete in the tournament and is quickly thrown against Cravex. Changing into his Beetle totem, Mortdred evades the crazed Cravex, which distracts the Lords from the Spectral Knights sneaking into the Dagger Assault and restoring their totems. The Knights attack the Lords. Cindarr makes a break for Cryotek's Strength staff, but Belizar manages to get it out of his way. Cindarr instead uses his own staff of Destruction, unleashing the beast on the castle. A tower is sent down towards the Knights, but Belizar gets Cryotek's staff to him in time for him to summon the Archer and destroy the tower. Darkstorm summons Decay, which lumbers towards Cryotek. Ectar jumps in the Lancer Cycle and knocks it aside. Cravex then summons Fear, with the spider making its way towards Leoric. Marna and Belizar warn Orzan that if Leoric's bitten, they're all done for, so the big man leaps into its path. In his panic, Orzan imagines himself subjugated by his own robot slaves. The battle has turned against the Lords, who promptly flee in their vehicles. Laser fire from the Dagger Assault is deflected by the Lancer Cycle's power of Protection and hits part of the castle. Virulina urges Lexor to use Invulnerability to protect those in the Dagger Assault from the masonry, allowing the group to make good their escape. Back in the city, the Knights help Orzan to his feet. The experience of his hallucination has changed the man, leading him to renounce slavery. Belizar meanwhile still dreams of being a knight, but pledges to stay in New Valarak to help rebuild the damage he's caused, however much work it involves. Characters In order of appearance Quotes "How may we be of service, my man?" :- Reekon, ever the opportunist,' '''offers his "assistance" to Belizar. "This is the age of magic, not sweat!" :- '''Rone' is scandalized by Marna's suggestion that the Khemirites learn to fend for themselves. "Whoa, that monkey packs a punch!" :- Belizar on the receiving end of Cindarr's gorilla fist. "I thought all slaves could sew." :- Marna wondering why the woman she's just met and forced into slavery isn't a master tailor. Notes Animation and technical errors *The Sky Claw creatures are usually shown as two different entities, but here the vulture transforms into the dragon. It is then mistakenly shown having a claw in a close-up, before being misdrawn as Cravex's Phylot in the next shot. The script lists them as two entities, but this is clarified only in a handwritten insertion, so it's likely the animation team went by the typed scene description and made do with the information they had. *Arzon is shown amongst the Spectral Knights giving aid to the Khemirite refugees, despite being reported missing in the very next scene. *Leoric's gloves are miscoloured as bare skin as he dodges the Sky Claw. *Arzon's odd asymmetrical shoulder strip is drawn as being on both shoulders here, which, while making more sense, is an error. *Cindarr is shown holding his Destruction staff while in his Gorilla form. Usually, staffs disappear along with a Visionary's human body while they're in their totem form. Story errors *How is it a "lost city" if people have been living there continuously and everyone's heard of it? *The Khemirites refer to having robot slaves as being in the "ancient days," even though it's probably only a few years at most. *The Capture Chariot is in a completely different location to where Feryl and Arzon left it en route to Khemir. *Why enslave only the Spectral Knights and not the regular citizens of New Valarak? *New Valarak is reduced to little more than a castle and keep for this story, rather than the full scale city seen in other episodes. *Everyone acts as if being a knight is a special position to achieve and not just something everyone declared themselves as after the fall of technology. Presumably, by "knight" they mean a Visionary, but it's not a distinction made and so scans strangely. Continuity Notes *Virulina is back with the Darkling Lords. Her return isn't noted in the episode, but the script contains a throwaway line where she mentions how glad she is to be back. Trivia *Welp, hope there was nothing important in that tower Cryotek disintegrated with his staff. *Feryl's acute sense of smell that earned him his Wolf totem again comes into play, as he detects the scent of rusted metal before he and Arzon encounter the city of Khemir. *This episode features a markedly lower level of animation compared to other episodes in the series, with some awkwardly proportioned characters, simple line work and basic direction. Given the way Japanese animation companies operate, it's likely this episode was produced by TMS's C-team, made up of trainees and less accomplished workers. *This is Doug Booth's first episode of the series and, as with some of his work on Transformers, it's a real toy advert. Every item in the line appears, with each vehicle getting to use its individual power and most Power Staffs being used. It is not subtly done. *The Metrodome region 2 DVD release contains (an early version of) the full script for this episode. Elements cut between script and screen include: **Galadria is called "Galadrina", and Witterquick's name is split into two words. **A much more dynamic and involved chase out of Khemir for the Capture Chariot, rather than Feryl driving it into a rock. **Khemir is described as being much grander in its ruin than the simple run-down, factory-like building we get. **The Spectral Knights are woken up by the Dagger Assault ramming down the doors to the main castle, rather than Galadria being woken by a staff being dropped in the courtyard. **Rather than knocking Darkstorm into the moat, Leoric and his nemesis fall onto a narrow ledge. Darkstorm turns into his Mollusk form to stick to the wall and attack, forcing Witterquick to dash up the wall in his Cheetah form to save Leoric. Home Media Releases *Hi-Tops Video Volume 6 References